Card filing device



Oct. 30, 1956 H. v. DAVIES CARD FILING DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledJuly 3, 1952 v r rm INVENTOK W Mfim WW 62 M Oct. 30, 1956 H. v. DAVIES2,768,625

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@2117 I y W INvE TM W ex/ M United States Patent CARD FILING DEVICEHerbert Vaughan Davies, London, England, assignor to Manifoldia Limited,West Bromwich, England, a British company Application July 3, 1952,Serial No. 297,147

Claims priority, application Great Britain July 13, 1951 2 Claims. (Cl.129-16) This invention relates to card filing devices of the rotary drumtype in which cards are mounted upon a rotatable drum in radiallyextending relationship, the drum being rotatable about a horizontal axisso that the cards can be traversed in succession past a viewing stationat the top of the drum.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved device of theabove kind in which separation of the individual cards at the viewingstation is facilitated.

The invention provides a card filing device of this type characterizedby the provision of a pair of card-holding elements mounted upon thedrum for movement therewith, each card-holding element comprising anelongated element, which is extensible in the longitudinal direction andwhich is mounted upon the drum in the form of an annular ring, saidcard-holding elements being spaced apart axially of the drum and eachhaving a plurality of card-receiving portions each of which receives anedge of a card when cards are arranged in radially extending fashion onthe drum.

The cards have a component of upward movement to the viewing station anda component of downward movement away therefrom so that the weight ofthe cards approaching and leaving the viewing station tends to extendthe elements as aforesaid.

Each element is preferably a zig-zag of folded strip form, the edges ofthe cards being received within the folds at the inner side of theelement. At the outer side each element may make interlocking engagementwith a guide rail on the drum, the engagement holding the element to therail while permitting sliding movement of the folds along the rail. Forexample each zig-zag limb of the element may be formed with a slot of Tor like shape providing an elongated bar and a stem in a directiontransverse thereto, the length of the bar being transverse to the lengthof the element and the stern extending to the rear face of the elementand there may be a guide rail received within the bar of the slot, thestem permitting passage of the folds of the element past supportingmeans for the rail during sliding movement of the folds along the rail.

Each element may be built up of short sections and when it is of zig-zagform each section may provide one fold for the reception of one card andthe arrangement may permit of the insertion of one or more additionalsections between pairs of adjacent sections.

When the elements are supported on guide rails as above described thecards may have notches in their edges fitting over the rails to hold thecards in place.

Some specific examples of card filing devices embodying the above andother features of the invention will now be described with reference tothe drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a card filing device embodying acarrier in the form of a drum,

Figure 2 is a vertical section through the device shown in Figure 1,

2,768,625 Patented Oct. 30, 1956 ice Figure 3 is a section on the lineIIII]I in Figure 2, through the drum,

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view,

Figure 5 is a view showing one section of the extensible element,

Figure 6 is a view of a card,

Figure 7 is a view of a separator card,

Figure 8 is a view corresponding to a portion of Figure 3 on an enlargedscale of a modification,

Figure 9 is a view of one of the cards employed in the modificationshown in Figure 8.

In the construction shown in Figures 1-7 the carrier is in the form of adrum 1 supported in a casing 2 for r0- tation about a horizontal axis. Ahandwheel 3 outside the casing and secured to the drum spindle 4 isprovided for effecting rotation of the drum. An annular rail 5 ofrectangular cross-section is secured to the inner face of each side ofthe drum. The rails are concentric with the drum and have their greatercross-sectional dimension extending radially, the rails being quite thinin the axial direction. The rails are held spaced away from the innerface of the drum by securing means 6 positioned at the centre of theradial width of the rails.

Attached to each rail 5 there is an extensible zig-zag card holdingelement 10. Each element is of annular form. The element is made up ofsections 11 (Figures 4 and 5) each consisting of one pair of reversefolds (i. e., have the form of the letter N), and each folded frompaper, card flexible sheet plastic or the like. The sections areassembled with one free limb received within the fold of the adjacentsection as may be seen from Figure 4, thereby to form a continuous ringwhen secured to the rail as later described. At the back of each limb ofeach section there is cut a T-shaped slot 12 so as to form, in theassembly, a T-shaped slot extending around the whole of the ring. Theslot extends inwardly to about half the depth of the zigzag. The ring isheld to the rail 5 by fitting the slot over the rail so that the rail isreceived within the cross-bar of the slot. This may be done bytemporarily removing a section of the rail or by bending the tongues 13at the back of the ring. Initially the sections are first assembled asabove described into the form of a pack which is fitted as such onto therail and then opened out to extend around the rail. If it is thendesired to insert one or more additional sections at any position in thering this may be effected by first removing the portion of the ring atthat position from the rail, separating the sections at that position,inserting the new section or sections and then replacing the ring on therail.

The T-shaped slot holds the extensible ring on the rail but permits thefolds to slide along it and to pass the supports 6.

In use the cards 15 are received within the folds of the two elements10, there being normally only one card in each pair of folds althoughmore may be inserted if desired, and as the drum is rotated the weightof the cards approaching the viewing station 16 at the top of the drumis opposed to the weight of the cards leaving the viewing station andconsequently the folds in the portions of the zig-zag elements passingthe viewing station tend to open out and separate the cards so thatinspection or selection is facilitated. At the lower parts of the drumthe cards close up to one another as indicated in Figure 3.

The cards are provided with notches 18 in their side edges which fitover the rails 5 to hold the cards in position.

To assist in the gravitational operation of the device some of the cardsat intervals around the drum may embody weights as indicated at 20 inFigure 7 or the cards may be of heavier material (e. g., metal). Suchweighted or heavier cards may, for example, be used to divide the cardsinto sections, for instance in the case of alphabetically arranged cardsthere may be a weighted card between the cards of each letter.

Figures 8 and 9 show a modification of the above example in which thecards 25 are folded to form pockets within which loose sheets 26 may beplaced. It is found that when the folds are closed up at the bottom ofthe drum by the weight of the cards they have suificient grip to preventthe loose sheets falling out. The two limbs of the folded cards arereceived within adjacent folds of the Zig-zag elements (see Figure 8) toensure that the pockets will open out at the viewing station. The foldsin the cards may be reinforced as shown at 27.

It is not essential that, in use, only one card be received within afold. If desired there may be two or more cards in one fold, the cardsbeing, for example, related in some way such as continuations of oneanother.

I claim:

1. A card filing device comprising a drum rotatable about a horizontalaxis, said drum comprising a spindle and a pair of side plates mountedthereon in axially spaced relationship, an annular rail mounted upon theinner face of each side plate, a pair of card-holding elements, onemounted upon each said rail for movement therewith, each card-holdingelement comprising an elongated element, of zig-zag folded strip formwhich is etxensible in the longitudinal direction, each of the folds atthe outer side of each element being provided with cut-out slots ofT-shape which engage over the adjacent annular rail and the edges of thecards being received within the folds at the inner sides of the elementswhen cards are arranged in radially extending fashion on the drum.

2. A card filing device according to claim 1 in which each element isbuilt up of short sections which are detachably engaged one withanother.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS489,794 Dyre Jan. 10, 1893 821,019 Cooke May 22, 1906 856,862 GreenwaltJune 11, 1907 1,125,391 Perreten Jan. 19, 1915 1,156,160 Lewis Oct. 12,1915 1,470,549 Steinmeyer Oct. 9, 1923 1,475,568 Dawson Nov. 27, 19231,599,913 Nicholas Sept. 14, 1926 1,906,892 White May 2, 1933 1,976,249Stafford Oct. 9, 1934 2,341,639 Mathiesen Feb. 15, 1944 2,368,162Scholfield Jan. 30, 1945 2,470,824 Lundqvist et al May 24, 19492,511,730 McClain June 13, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS 612,424 Great BritainNov. 12, 1948

